India: Supreme Court seeks to curb violence against health workers

India's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the creation of a task force to strengthen the security of healthcare workers following the rape and murder of a young doctor in Kolkata.

The president of the court, Dhananjaya Chandrachud, specified that this new body, composed of doctors, will have to prepare a plan to prevent violence in health establishments and a “protocol” to establish safe working conditions.

The discovery of the bloodied body of a 31-year-old doctor in a public hospital on August 9 has rekindled anger over the scourge of violence against women.

Health workers light candles in tribute to a young doctor from Kolkata who was raped and killed on August 18, 2024 in Amritsar, India © AFP – Narinder NANU

After the murder, associations of doctors at Indian public hospitals protested and began strikes that led to the shutdown of non-essential care in many cities.

These work stoppages hit patients seeking free treatment in the public sector, who are too poor to afford private care.

– Queues –

In New Delhi, queues are growing at hospitals. Khatoon, 65, has been waiting for ten days for an appointment at a public hospital in the capital for her 30-year-old son, who has a brain tumour and has been bedridden for four years. “His condition is not good at all,” she told AFP, giving him a worried look.

“I don't know if this strike is for better or for worse. All I fear is that my son will die before the date (of the appointment).”

Rosy Khatoon (r), sitting next to her husband, waits to see a doctor in New Delhi, on August 20, 2024 in India © AFP – Money SHARMA

Rosy Khatoon, 35, sitting next to her husband, who wears a colostomy bag because he suffers from stomach cancer, considers this walkout “unfair”. “People are dying. “How can this continue with so many patients suffering ?”, she protests.

Protesters, who dubbed the slain doctor “Abhaya” (the “Fearless One”), marched in Kolkata on Tuesday demanding “justice”, as Supreme Court judges said in their ruling: “The brutality of the sexual assault and the nature of the crime have shocked the conscience of the nation”.

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The Delhi-based court said it was compelled to intervene because “the lack of safety standards in healthcare facilities in the face of violence against staff is a matter of grave concern”.

– “Don't wait for another rape” –

“With little or no safeguards to ensure their safety, healthcare workers have become vulnerable to violence”, the court added, noting in particular the lack of CCTV cameras and security personnel in the units of medical care.

Health professionals during a march to condemn the rape and murder of a young doctor in Kolkata, on August 20, 2024 in Mumbai, India © AFP – Indranil Mukherjee

The doctor killed in Kolkata was found in the hospital's seminar room, suggesting that she had gone there to rest during of a 36-hour guard. Her parents suspect that she was gang raped.

“At a time when more and more women are joining the workforce in cutting-edge fields of knowledge and science, the nation has a vital interest in ensuring safe and dignified working conditions,” the court said.

“The nation cannot wait for a rape or murder to bring about real change on the ground,” it said.

A man, who worked at the hospital reception desk, was arrested.

– “Violence” –

This latest attack has rekindled memories of the gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.

Sexual violence against women is widespread in India, with an average of nearly 90 rapes per day reported in 2022 in the country of 1.4 billion people. And working conditions in some hospitals are dire.

A white coat and stethoscope covered in red ink marks representing blood as doctors protest the rape and murder of a young doctor from Calcutta, on August 14, 2024 at a hospital in Vijayawada, India © AFP – Idrees MOHAMMED

The Supreme Court highlighted grueling 36-hour workdays where “even basic needs of sanitation, nutrition, hygiene and rest are not met.”

It is also common in India for relatives to accuse health workers of negligence when a patient dies, with the court noting that such allegations are often “immediately followed by violence.”

The court cited the case of a nurse in Bihar state who was pushed from the first floor of a hospital in May by the family of a pregnant patient who had died.

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